Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-05-18
Spring Narrowing.

Spring Narrowing.
Nearly everything is greatly i'm
proved by spring NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.,
pasture, wheat, oats, rye, corn and
potatoes. The small grain should
not be narrowed too soon, before the
plants have formed good roots. So
soon as the fierce, dry spring winds
are over the spring grain should be
rolled and then narrowed with g. light,
tine or slanting tooth harrow. This
rolling and harro wing should be done
as soon as the ground dries after the
usual heavy spring rains, which usu-
ally pack the soil, and when it dries
forms q hard crust. The harrow is
not used half enough on meadows
and pastures in the spring. By it's
use the crops of grass can be nearly
doubled. 1t is nearly as useful as Gull
tivating corn. 1t stirs up and loosens
the soil, which invariably becomes
packed hard in meadows and pas
lures. 1t is not so particular about
having O. light, fine. toothed harrow
for this purpose as it is for wheat and
oats. But put on q good heavy har-
row and tear up the soil in q lively
way on pasture and meadow.
But the harrow can be used right
along on corn ground, before and after
planting. And if the ground has been
ploWed ten days or two weeks before
planting, do not fail to harrow thor
oughly Just before planting. Give the
corn q fair chance to start with the
weed seed. A large number Of acres
can be narrowed in q day with a good
draft horse team. Have harroWs ten
to fifteen feet wide, and prepare the
soil for the crop in way your fathers
never dreamed. The harrow is the
greatest implement for the corn field,
or for the wheat, the pasture Or the
meadow. Have them made right,
light timbers, frequent joints, and then
spread them out wide, so that team
can harrow forty or fifty acres in q
day, How the world has acted the
fool with their little 'harrows, and
shingle shovel plows Iowa Register.
Fence Posts.
An experimental writer on this sub
ject very nationally remarks: "To
have fence that will last, we must
have good posts, for that is the part
that gives out first by rotting off at
the surface OF the soil. Then the fence
has to come down, new posts set and
the boards replaced. Sixteen years
ago | experimental with my fences,
and find seasoned oak posts oiled and
then tarred with boiling coal tar,
makes them last the longest. I took
green posts that were sawed five
inches square at one end and 2x5
inches at the other, and seven feet
long. tarred half as many as would
build my fence, and the other half I
put in the ground green, with nothing
done to them. In five years after the
tarred posts were nothing out shell
under the ground, all of the inside be-
ing decayed. Some of the other posts
were rolled off. and some were about
half rotten.
"Two years after, I built another
fence with seasoned oak posts, same
size as the first, giving them all a good
coat of oil, and in a few days after
tarred them, as I did before, with coal
tar, heated in a can made for the pur-
pose, four feet deep and large enough
to hold four posts set on end. [ left
them in the boiling tar for about ten
minutes, them took them out and
sanded them; and now, after fourteen
years not one In the ten needs replac-
ing. I shall never build fence for
myself requiring posts without first
thoroughly seasoning, then oiling, and
then tarring them. If they are tarred
when green, the tar does not penetrate
the wood, and IN short time will all
scale off. When the wood is seasoned
the oil penetrates the wood and the
coating of coal tar keeps out the
moisture, thereby preserving the wood
from decay"